


anything at all can happen just before the sunrise

by orphan_account



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: AU, F/F, HSAU, Multi, musical AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-29 04:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3882286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura has been waiting for years for this: her big break. Just months before heading off to college, she finally gets to have the lead in her high school play. But what happens when her castmate and love interest disappear? How do you even deal with his replacement?</p>
<p>An AU where their high school is doing "In the Heights" and Laura is Nina, Carmilla is Benny and the rest of the Dimwit Squad is running the show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When the bell finally rang, signaling the end of school, Laura could barely contain her excitement. She ran to her locker and was quickly putting in her combination, fingers moving faster than ever, having her locker open in record time for her four years at Silas High.

“Whoa, Laura, take a breath,” Betty, her locker neighbor and friend, said to the frantic girl.

“Sorry! I just have the first rehearsal today and I’m so excited and I want to get there early so I can get a jump on things and...”

“First of all, we _need_ to get you out more so you can relax, girl. Second, I know you’re excited but you’ve clearly fucked up your combination like three times already.” Laura rolled her eyes. Betty wasn’t wrong, per se. “And last, you’ve got time to go before rehearsal. Just breathe.”

Laura snorted at that. “Oh, I get it. Just breathe.”

“Uh, well I don’t.”

“Cause my song is ‘Breathe’ and you think you’re so funny.” Laura finally got into her locker at this point, putting away books in her locker and organizing what she needed for the night in her backpack.

“Well, I didn’t mean the joke. I don’t even know what musical you’re doing, to be honest,” Betty muttered. Okay, so maybe Betty and Laura weren’t that close. Gaining close friends didn’t matter much to Laura anyway. She was a few months away from college and it wasn’t exactly time for her to make new friends. She had been so wrapped up in her studies that she barely had time to keep up with the friends she had. Laura didn’t mind though. She spent her days either studying or working on the play. She took time after school to practice singing and took dance classes on the weekends. When those were done, she also worked part time at a bakery. Her dad worried that she overworked herself. Laura never seemed to notice. She was busy, hyper even. She worked best when she was overwhelmed. It kept her focused.

“Oh, well, we’re doing ‘In the Heights’ and I’m playing Nina,” she replied, looking up. “And you’re gone, okay.” Laura smiled sadly to herself. _It didn’t matter,_ she repeated in her mind. _It doesn’t matter._

* * *

 

“So, welcome to the first official rehearsal for ‘In the Heights!’” a girl with curly red hair said with excitement. “My name is Lola Perry, call me Perry, and I am your student director.”

The crowd of students, totaling about 18, mumbled quiet “Heys” back into the room. Laura looked the girl straight in the eyes when she responded. She’d deny to her death being a kiss up, but that didn’t change the truth.

“For those of you who haven’t done a show here before, Silas’ theater program is technically run through the school and we have a teacher supervisor and director, Ms. Morgan, who is also the Music and Arts Coordinator throughout the district. Needless to say, she is often extremely busy so she will not be at every rehearsal. For those times, I will be the one in charge of running things and setting up the rehearsal schedule. I will also be the one you come to with any questions about the material in general. We also have the rest of the Production Staff at rehearsal today, so I’ll have them introduce themselves. Lafontaine?”

“Hey guys, I’m Laf and I’m your stage manager,” a person with short red hair and a button down shirt introduced themselves.

“Is that all you have to say, Lafontaine?”

“Uh...tell me your tshirt size so we can buy them before the show is over.” They clearly were not as uptight as the director. Laura should have known, with them lounging in their chair the whole time. Laura knew of them, Laf being the only nonbinary person in their small town. She didn’t think much of it, also being part of the LGBTQ* community. Laura had read about it online and, as a journalist, would love to know more about Laf’s firsthand experience, but as a decent person, she never asked any questions.

“Lafontaine will be the one who organizes you at rehearsal so you should tell them if you will be late or not attending. They will also be your number one source during tech week, so get on their good side!”

“Yeah, what she said.” Laf was sitting back down at this point and Perry was standing again. Perry also continued through introducing the ProStaff herself, no longer trusting them to do it themselves, thanks to Laf. There was Danny, the Creative Team Coordinator, who helped to design sets, organized lighting and sound and collected all the props and costumes for the show. Kirsch, the Technical Director, would be the one building the set (he also interjected that he would be around to ‘Help any hotties learn their lines” which attracted the boys more than the girls of the cast, who mostly rolled their eyes). Will, a very quiet and dark boy, lurking in the background, was identified as the Light and Sound Guy, which was a very unflattering title. Natalie would be the Choreographer along with her best friend Sarah Jane. Elsie and JP were Musical Directors, which Laura instantly took note of, since she’d have a lot to learn before the show and wanted their help a lot. Perry nodded to herself after rattling off the list of names and settling down.

Laura smiled at that point. She was excited to get started and after seeing the staff she’d be working with, she got even more excited. They were diverse and though there had been some eye rolling and rude looks, she knew they’d pull together. They had to, right?

“Okay, I’m going to call off your character names and you’ll identify yourselves,” Laf started. Perry smiled approvingly. “So, Piragua Guy?” “Here!” “Carla?” “Hey!” And so on they continued until, “Nina?” “Right here!” “Benny?” Silence. “Uh, Benny?” Still nothing. “Shit...” “Language!” “Coño!” “I didn’t mean change your language, watch your language!”

Laf sighed. “Fine. Is Matt here? He said he could be here today.” Everyone in the room looked around but no one said a word. Laura started to panic a little. Benny was Nina’s romantic interest and the only person she harmonized with. Having him not here would be annoying to say the least, horrendously detrimental to say the most. “Okay, I’ll go call him, you guys stay here and start the readthrough. The rest of the cast is here, right? Usnavi? Abuela? Vanessa? Okay, awesome, be right back.” And in a flash, they were out of the room. Laura didn’t like it, but what could she do? So she started the readthrough with the rest of the cast.

* * *

 

The read was nice, with everyone getting a little into character and singing along with the Broadway recording. Usnavi, though he didn’t quite know the lyrics yet, was up and rapping for every one of his songs. He was sweet and he and Laura had already shared an embrace while whispering the promise of “coffee soon” in each other’s ears. Laf had returned somewhere in the first act with no sign of Matt and a typical blank expression on their face. Laura didn’t know what to make of any of it. What she did know was that she was going to find Matt and drag his sorry butt back to rehearsal. The two of them worked so well together in callbacks; she didn’t know what could have happened. She was worried about him.

As she packed up to leave, Perry came up behind her and said that they needed to talk. She nodded, figuring it had to do something with Benny. The rest of the room had cleared out, the Prostaff included, so they really didn’t have to whisper (they did anyway). “Well, I have some good news and some bad news.” Laura cringed slightly. “The bad news is that Matt has dropped out of the show for, um, personal reasons.” Laura shook her head. Like hell this was happening. She’s waited for years to have a lead in a musical. She worked her way up, practicing so hard and never stopping. She was not about to work against some second rate boy who didn’t even know what he was doing. There wasn’t anyone else at callbacks that could put a finger to Matt. This is not how this was going to go.

“The good news is...” Laf reappeared with someone new by her side. Laura shook her head again, still overwhelmed with anger and confusion.

“What’s the good news?” she asked Perry. She turned her head to the mystery girl. “And who the hell are you?”

“I’m your new castmate, sweetheart.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Excuse me, you’re my new what now?”

“Castmate. I’ll be playing Benny.”

“I have a Benny.”

“Don’t you catch on quick?”

Lafontaine shuffled silently on the balls of their feet and looked around. The scene was a train wreck but they couldn’t look away for long. But how they really wanted to. Perry appeared to have her heartbeat racing at 1000 beats per minute (which was, undoubtedly, medically impossible) as she had her eyes flicking between scanning the room and looking at two actors before her. She wanted to leave, but she was the director. She shared a knowing look with Laf at that point. What could she do?

“No, a preexisting Benny. His name is Matt, I had callbacks with him and...”

“Listen, cupcake, I didn’t mean to get you in a tizzy...”

“I’m _not_ in a ‘tizzy.’” She emphasized it with air quotes.

“Whatever. Listen, if you get this Matt kid to show up, I’ll be gone, out that door. But until then, I have this part.”

“Yeah? Who says?”

“Ms. Morgan.”

That shut Laura up real quick. Ms. Morgan didn’t often cast shows or show any real involvement in the play. She picked the student director and then let the rest run without her. So to get information directly from her meant something.

“Oh. Well then.”

“Well, Lafontaine and I must be going now.”

“Must you be?”

Perry closed her eyes to calm herself for a second; _clearly this girl was not in her top choices for the musical,_ Laura thought to herself.

“Yes. But you two can stay a while, get to know each other. First full rehearsal is tomorrow at 3:15. Be sure to be on time for vocal warm. Goodbye!” Perry quickly shuffled away, tugging Laf by the sleeve on their hoodie before they could stay behind. Laf would be one to stay behind, just to mess with them.

“So, as enjoyable as this experience was, I’ll be leaving now.”

“Wait!” Laura called out. The girl turned on the heel of her combat boots.

“What?”

“Shouldn’t we maybe talk a little? I mean, I didn’t even get your name.” Laura felt kind of shy all of the sudden, looking down. There was a blush growing on her cheeks. On second thought, she decided that the red she felt on her cheeks could be from anger.

“Carmilla.”

“Oh, I’m Laura.” She reached out to shake hands but Carmilla was already around the corner. _Yep,_ she thought. _Definitely anger._

* * *

 

Carmilla was, without a shadow of a doubt, as terrible as Laura thought she would be. She was late every day the past week, including the very first day and always seemed disaffected by the ‘talks’ Perry gave her about punctuality. She laughed, flat out laughed, when people forgot their lines even though she didn’t know hers yet.

“Relax, princess. I got my book Tuesday; I’ll have it all down by Friday, latest,” she reassured Laura. This was less than reassuring, however, as it came on the heels of Laura flubbing a line, Carmilla botching the next one and the whole scene going down in flames. She also followed it up with a “You better work on that too, you know. I’m not going to carry the whole show myself, cupcake.”

Carmilla was also reluctant to take any help from the MDs and didn’t offer any help to the set builders moving around her with multiple 8’ 2x4s. On more than one occasion, Laura went to look for her (for, you know, their scene together!) to find her curled up on a set piece napping. A few times, and Laura is still not sure how she managed this one, Carmilla was found with Laura’s favorite yellow hoodie under her head, like a makeshift pillow.

“I’m going to kill her,” Laura muttered to Laf in the back of the auditorium.

“Hey, man, not cool,” Laf responded. Laura looked at them, confused. “I’ve told you this before, if you’re gonna kill someone, leave me out of it. It’ll look better when we get to court. Plausible deniability and all that.”

“Ugh,” she sighed. “But if you’re not around, how will I get rid of the body? You’re the only one I know has access to the chemical closet.” Laura smirked and gave Laf a nudge. They smirked too.

“Glad to know where your loyalties lie,” they retorted. “So who are we killing?”

“I’ll give you one guess,” she said, nodding to the stage. Carmilla was perched with her legs dangling off the edge while she was playing on her phone. Will dropped a floor can near Carmilla with a bang and she didn’t react. She said something, inaudible to Laf and Laura who were seated at the head of the house, with the quirk of her eyebrow. Will narrowed his eyes and responded back, hands balling into fists at his sides. She looked up from her phone for the first time in an hour to turn to him and reply with a smirk. He threw down his measuring tape and stormed into the wings while a smirking Carmilla returned to texting.

“You see that?” Laura basically shouted.

“Yeah,” a new voice said. Laura whipped around to see Danny, the Creative Team Coordinator and, in Laura’s mind, the hottest bi girl at all of Silas (perhaps in the whole country). “She’s been like that all week. Apparently she and Will are related, cousins or something, and she’s always at his neck. She picks on the rest of the crew too, you know. It’s getting cruel.”

“I gotta go,” Laf said, getting up and walking away. Laura waved as Danny took their seat.

“Yeah, imagine acting alongside her.”

“Oh shit, yeah I forgot. How’s that going for you guys?”

“Eh you know, it’s not _bad_ ,” Laura said, putting an emphasis on bad. “It’s terrible,” she deadpanned.

Danny laughed. “Well, if it’s any consolation, seeing you up there next to her, makes you look even better.” Danny smiled towards Laura. Laura looked away until she heard another crash from the stage. There were three stage hands, two holding a table and one holding a splintered leg from said table, all looking around guiltily. Kirsch whipped around in an attempt to hide a sledgehammer behind his back. “Shit, I gotta go.” Danny was halfway to the stage in a few strides. Carmilla was nowhere to be found.

* * *

 

It wasn’t that she didn’t care for musicals. She did, a lot, in fact. Her iPod was 50% rock music, 50% scores and she carried that with pride. She had seen multiple Broadway productions and kept the Playbills plastered to her walls, adorned with their ticket stubs. No, that wasn’t it at all. She hated whiney high school kids with heads too big for their shoulders and neck to properly balance and egos too inflated to fit them in an auditorium without it being a fire hazard. So she went for a walk.

Every day she needed some down time in between scenes (an introvert who like musical theater, sue her) and every time she rejoined the cast, they’d look at her like she had an extra limb or like she was a vampire or something. She’d roll her eyes. Except at Laura. Granted Laura was beyond optimistic and naïve, at least she wasn’t arrogant. She was very humble about everything and took all of her notes with grace. She would write them down and read them over and perform exactly as they had suggested the previous day. Too bad she didn’t memorize her lines as well.

Carmilla didn’t mean to have a problem with Laura. It was one of those things that happened. Laura wanted another actor to play Benny and when that plan went up in smoke, she took it out on Carmilla. Carmilla didn’t care, but she wasn’t going to be disgustingly kind back. She was just following Laura’s lead on that one. Besides, she didn’t want to be Laura’s friend. She wanted to do this play, finish her school year and get the hell out of the suburban trap of a town she called home. California, New York, anywhere that wasn’t here was beckoning her.

As was the stage manager. While she entirely disagreed with the Prostaff as a whole, she could get used to this one. They were snarky and had a dry sense of humor. They were all business and didn’t try to be anyone they weren’t. Though she wasn’t sure how Laf felt about her, she knew that she respected them.

“Come on, it’s 5:25, they needed you to run a scene nearly a half hour ago.”

“And isn’t it your job to organize that?”

Laf scoffed. “I’m the _stage_ manager. Not the ‘dumbass manager.’”

“Is there a dumbass manager? Because I feel like Will and Kirsch could really use a supervisor.”

“That would be Danny,” they said with a grin. Carmilla liked the gossiping side of this kid.

“What a fucked system, she’s the worst of them all!” Lafontaine snorted and shook their head. “You’re not a huge fan of Big Red either?”

“I wouldn’t go that far...”

“That wasn’t far at all.”

“We have some rough history. Nothing major but yeah, she and I aren’t on great terms anymore.” Carmilla nodded. Laf looked away, looking guilty. They opened their mouth to speak, but couldn’t put together the words to do so.

“I won’t say anything, you know.” Laf looked up with a smile, clearly relieved. “It’s not like I talk to any of those dimwits anyway. Besides, it’s your business.”

“Thanks.” They shared small smiles. “And now we’re 27 minutes late so let’s get a move on.”

The room was filled with a dozen pairs of eyes on Carmilla. They were all harsh and she rolled her eyes to hide the anxiety tears that were building. She didn’t like this kind of pressure. She hardly had a 15 minute break before she was shoved on the stage, alone, to perform. She left and she swore she could hear a groan from Laura in the audience. She picked up her libretto from a chair offstage and returned, flipping it open to Benny’s Dispatch, keeping her eyes off everyone and everything.

“Are you ready?” the musical director, J- something, asked, breaking the silence. He was seated at a piano, looking up at her on the stage.

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Do you have any questions before we begin? Do you think you can handle the low notes and the tempo change at measure...”

“Can we just get this over with?” He looked offended and scared and Carmilla heard whispers from the audience and a giggle as Laura and Danny shared a joke between them. “I just, want to run it and we can fix it later.” She paused and assessed the situation before continuing. “I’m an alto so the tenor part should be fine.”

“Okay, from the top then!”

Carmilla was wrong. She really didn’t care at all for high school musicals.

* * *

 

At 5 PM sharp, Carmilla was supposed to have a last minute vocal warm up with JP. At 5:05, she was supposed to go over the song with him and discuss any measures she had questions about. At 5:10, she was supposed to run Benny’s Dispatch. By 5:15, she should have had a chance to write down the notes, given by both Elsie and JP, as well as Perry. At 5:20, she was supposed to learn the, very simple but important, choreography and blocking for the scene. At 5:30, she was to try it, from the top, with choreography and vocals, with the addition of Nina (Laura).

It was 5:22 and Carmilla was nowhere to be found. Perry paced nervously at the back of the auditorium. “Why isn’t she picking up her phone?” Laf shrugged. “Where could she be? Where is she that is so important that she won’t answer her phone? You’re not even supposed to leave during rehearsal!”

“Perry, breathe, sweetheart. She probably just has it on mute.” Perry sighed, not sounding at all relaxed. “I’ll go look for her, okay?” Laf put a reassuring hand on Perry’s shoulder. She nodded in agreement as Laf left.

It was one thing for Ms. Morgan to force this girl into the play, without any discussion on Perry’s part, but to give her a lead when she clearly does not have any semblance of dedication or commitment? It was ludicrous. She wanted to scream at the woman for ruining her play, and they were only a week into rehearsal. She hadn’t even heard the girl sing or seen her act or dance before she was cast. It was not right; it was weird and abnormal and it made Perry’s head spin. She organized the tech desk to relax.

At 5:32, Carmilla made it to the stage. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw who ushered her in.

* * *

 

She was late, by over a half hour, according to Perry. The only reason Laura knew this was because of the hole Perry dug into the floor with her pacing and the lack of help Laura could provide in that instance. Instead, she went to the first row of seats, where Danny promptly sat down next to her. They talked and it was nice. Laura used to be so shy around Danny but now, working together on this show with Danny purposefully approaching her and talking to her, she felt calmer. She could actually get words out for once and she always remembered to breathe.

“So, what do you think?”

“Friday, you said?” Danny nodded. “Yeah, I’m free.”

“It’s a date then!”

Danny smiled wider than she had all day and put an arm around the back of Laura’s chair. Laura wasn’t sure what she meant when she said that. _A date? Like a date-date? Or just like a date, like February 13 th or March 2nd? Those are dates. They’re not date-dates though, _Laura thought, her mind running a mile a minute. She looked back up at Danny who was absentmindedly looking about the stage. She looked down at Laura and grinned and blushed a little. _Yeah, it’s definitely a date-date._

A loud clomping refocused Laura’s attention to the stage before her. Carmilla walked to center stage, face completely devoid of emotion. She quickly left again (typical) and returned with her libretto. She flipped open the book to the appropriate page and didn’t look up. JP asked if she was ready. She grunted something in his general direction. He seemed not to be phased by it and asked if she had any questions.

“Can we just get this over with?”

“Oh shiiiit,” Danny whispered in Laura’s ear.

“What a jerk. Poor JP!” Laura replied.

“Looks like someone had bitch-flakes for breakfast.” Laura giggled. Not because it was particularly funny (it wasn’t funny at all, if she was being honest), but because Danny jumped on teasing the worst castmate in the history of the world with Laura so easily. That, and the fact that Danny’s breathe tickled her cheek. It was nice and Laura was blushing (again).

Carmilla closed her eyes for a second and stood there. She slowly walked to the edge of the stage and mumbled something to JP. He was now visibly less upset and Carmilla walked back to her spot. It looked like she was trying to even her breathing, as if she was nervous or something. But that couldn’t be it.

“Hey, I gotta go, track meet,” Danny said, breaking Laura’s focus.

“Oh yeah, okay. Break a leg!” Shit. “Don’t, don’t break a leg. What I meant to say was, good luck!”

Danny smiled. “Same to you, Hollis. See you Friday.” She gave Laura a hug before walking out.

A low bass riff filled the room shortly thereafter and Laura spotted Elsie strumming along. JP sat at the piano and was accompanying Elsie.

“Check one, two, three.” The floor mics were on so the first line rang through the room, even though Carmilla’s head was stuck down, reading. “This is Benny on the dispatch, yo.” Laura snorted and Carmilla smirked. It was so unnatural, coming from her. “Yo.” It was so unlike Carmilla, cool punk rocker chick, singing such a silly part. “Honk your horn if you want it!” Some audience members sang the trumpet part (a loud “bap bap bap!”)

Laura was impressed, to be honest. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but this wasn’t it. Carmilla started to flow into the R&B beat and even loosened her stance slightly. She didn’t move from the X beneath her feet but she started to look away from her page. Maybe she wasn’t lying about having all of her lines down by Friday.

“Hold up a minute,” she sang. JP stopped playing and turned around. “Laura? Would you care to join?” She stood up and shouted an excited “yes!” to the MD. Carmilla had closed her book and had her eyes closed again. But when Laura approached, she was on the edge, reaching out her hand to help Laura up.

“Thanks.” Carmilla shrugged.

“Okay, let’s start from there.”

They sang through their lines well, relaxing with the other nearby. Carmilla seemed less tense with some of the gazes diverted from her. On a couple belts, Carmilla threw her head back and really fleshed out the note. It was breathtaking to see. They harmonized slightly, though most of their lines didn’t overlap. Carmilla was definitely talented, as she moved to compliment Laura both physically and vocally.

“Stay here with me,” Carmilla sang, finishing the song. She held her hand out for Laura to take and she walked them to behind the unfinished dispatch table, where they sat together. Laura smiled again. She wasn’t Matt but she was doing a damn good job at Benny. They ran it again, with more movement. SJ and Natalie showed them where to move and suggested a couple motions but let them decide how exactly to block the dancing. Carmilla seemed a little uncomfortable with improvised hip-hop but she was less uncomfortable with that than she was with dance moves. Regardless, by the third runthrough, it was looking natural. Carmilla had put her libretto down after the vocal run and hadn’t picked it up since. Laura had followed suit and the pair looked like they never even needed them.

It was 5:50 when they were dismissed. Laura wasn’t sure what to think about Carmilla anymore. Sure, she had a complete disregard for time and common courtesy but she was also dedicated and kind of shy. It was weird to say, especially knowing her reputation around the school as a smooth-talker and womanizer. But she really was trying and Laura respected that. She was conflicted. Laura saw her still packing up when she was about to leave.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“You did a really good job up there, I was impressed. Especially those low notes at the end. So good.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s how I got the part.” Carmilla tossed her bag over her shoulder and walked out.

Laura wasn’t conflicted anymore.

“ _Bitch_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is all real information from the show so you can look up the song. Just picture Carmilla singing it (*heart eyes*). Also, if you have any tech questions, let me know! I put in a couple tech terms but I think they're either self-explanatory or Google-able.  
> As always, hmu with questions/comments/praise/concerns/etc.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura's upset, Perry is frazzled, Danny is enamored and Carmilla is apathetic to it all? Perhaps.

It had been a few days since “The Incident” and Laura was still fuming. She spent dinner ranting to her father about the terribleness that was materialized into one named Carmilla Karnstein. The next day, Wednesday, Laura was only called briefly to work on a solo song. She ran into Carmilla, who was practically being dragged in by a flustered Perry, to attend a dance rehearsal for a number Laura wasn’t in. She heard her mumble something about not liking to dance only to hear Perry shriek “so help me goodness, you will learn the dance and play the part you were casted in.” Laura gave her a smile of pity, which Perry missed and Carmilla returned with a look of offense and disdain.

On Thursday’s rehearsal, Carmilla showed up half an hour late to the vocal work with Laura, blaming it on “getting caught up in someone...er something,” with a smirk. Elsie arrived a few minutes later with her face red, which only strengthened Carmilla’s smirk. She proceeded to sing the whole song as if it were a love song to the musical director and Laura decided then and there that she never wanted to know what (or who) Carmilla was getting herself into.

Regardless, the very next day, Carmilla was seen sporting a hickey so as to show off what she had been learning in her “music lessons.” And so it was Friday, the last rehearsal of the week and the one where Laura knew she had to speak to Perry. She had a little time, as the MDs did vocal work with the cast before learning “96,000” which Laura wasn’t in. She found Perry in the back, running through some personal notes and asked her if they could talk. Laf was hot on the others’ heels and they sat down in a small room outside of the auditorium.

“So, Laura, what did you want to talk about?” Perry started.

“I wanted to talk about the castmate from hell!” Laura was always a little enraged, this time being no exception.

“Okay, sweetheart, I’m willing to talk but calling her the castmate from heck...”

“You can say ‘hell’ Perry, we’re almost legal adults here,” Laf interjected.

“Won’t solve anything,” Perry continued without regarding their comment.

“Oh it won’t? What about the fact that she’s being a, a raging b- bad person!” Laura stuttered through a little, flailing her arms a tad when it came to the last part of her sentence. Laf and Perry looked at each other and then back to Laura without saying a word. “What? You don’t believe me? Perry, you know that she’s been late to every single rehearsal. And it’s not like she’s productive when she’s here! I’m pretty sure she spends most of her breaks fuc--... I mean, making love to Elsie and so she never gets back in time. She laughs when people drop lines and she keeps making fun of my ability to salsa and on Tuesday, she was so mean to me! It’s not fair.”

“Well, she is not exactly...the nicest person in the world,” Perry tried.

“Not nice? That’s all you got?” Laf piped in from the back. Laura nodded in response to that, hoping they’d continue. “Dude, she’s kind of mean. In those instances, at least.”

“Have you tried talking to her? A lot of problems can be solved with good communication!” Laura felt herself redirecting her anger away from Carmilla and onto Perry (which wasn’t fair) but she kind of wanted to punch her in the face. Communication? Seriously? With the spawn of Satan?

“No, I haven’t tried that.”

“It’s a great place to start.”

“I really don’t think that’ll work,” Laura protested. She sighed, looking defeated. She didn’t want to have to handle this on her own. She could, but she didn’t want to. This girl was cruel when she wanted to be and Laura didn’t exactly want to approach Carmilla on her own. “Listen, if you guys can’t help me, I’ll just try to talk to Ms. Morgan myself.”

“Oh no no no, you really don’t want to do that,” Perry said quickly.

“Yeah, she’s not someone to bring into this,” Laf interjected.

“Things will just get out of hand and she’s always so busy. It’s best to work on this by yourself.”

“Yeah, definitely, what Perry said.” Laura looked back and forth between the two of them. What happened to Laf being on her side?

On that note, a sulking body turned the corner into the room, as broody and dark as always. Laura whipped her head around but Carmilla didn’t seem to notice how much she jumped.

“Good afternoon, Carmilla!” Perry said, cheerfully.

“Hello.”

“Well, Lafontaine and I were just leaving, we have rehearsal to attend and all.” Perry grabbed Laf by the hand to make sure they followed her lead. Carmilla shrugged and sat in a corner, producing a small novel from her jacket pocket.

“What a shame,” Carmilla muttered without dragging her eyes away from the book.

 “Anyway, we will be going. And, Laura, remember. Good communication.” She said the last part barely above a whisper. From Laura was sitting, it appeared that Carmilla wasn’t listening anyway. Laura nodded and said her goodbyes as the two left.

“God, I thought they’d never leave,” Carmilla mumbled over the top of her book.

“That’s not...” Carmilla quirked up on eyebrow and made eye contact with Laura, prolonging her pause as her nerves set in. “Nice. It’s not nice to talk about your director that way.”

“Too bad...” Carmilla said, pausing in a way that gently mocked Laura’s loss of words. “I don’t give a shit.” She turned her attention back to her book, her smirk staying with her until she got lost in a new paragraph.

“Why are you like this all the time?” Laura was getting mad again.

“Aw that bunched up face you make when you’re angry is hilarious, buttercup.”

“Shut the hell up.”

“You know what? I don’t have time for this. See you on stage, sweetie.” Carmilla spun around and stormed out of the room.

“Yeah I will! If you ever make it there!” She heard a snort from down the hall as the sound of footsteps died off. _Communication my ass_ , she thought.

* * *

What she said to Laura wasn’t exactly _mean_ per se. It wasn’t delivered nicely and it wasn’t the courteous way one answers that sort of question. But mean? Not exactly. It was a response to her previous sentence. “ _You’re pretty talented.” “That’s how I got the part.”_ It was logical and true. She didn’t just stumble upon a part in the play and beg mommy dearest for it. She was actually talented and skilled and had been professionally trained. It was rude and presumptuous to think otherwise.

But Laura was presumptuous. It was kind of her thing. Carmilla had heard through the grapevine that Laura was a budding journalist, the Editor-in-Chief of Silas Monthly, not that Carmilla ever picked up a single edition of that in her four years at Silas. But she was one to make assumptions and Carmilla could just tell what kind of person she was. When you spend a small amount of your time talking, you hear a whole hell of a lot. It would be a lovely lesson for Laura to learn.

She respected Laura on the stage, however. She was passionate and driven. She truly loved theater and she spent all of her time running lines and working through scenes and trying to fully understand her character. She was bubbly, annoyingly so, but at least she never got bored during rehearsal. She was a pain in the ass, but in the best possible way. But she was always up Carmilla’s ass and the respect didn’t seem mutual to her.  It drove her up a fucking wall.

But regardless, a few days rolled by since she made that remark and after a few days of Laura acting like Carmilla killed her entire family, Carmilla realized that something was wrong. That she did something wrong, at least in Laura’s eyes. This was further confirmed when she accidentally walked in on the ball of rage ranting about her to the director and stage manager. She pretended like she didn’t hear. She didn’t want to do anything about it. She decided to keep to herself, before the pressure cooker exploded all over her. When Laura wanted to talk, she knew she would. But until then, she had a hot date with some books and, when the time was right, the musical director.

“Hey, hottie, ready for another music lesson?” Elsie approached Carmilla as she sat atop a stack of chairs in the band room. Elsie walked up to her and grabbed the front of her jacket, standing inches away from Carmilla’s face.

“Hm, I’m not sure,” Carmilla said, putting the book away, to better assess the situation. She was frustrated with Laura still, after storming out of the room where Laura was clearly bitching about her. She tried hard to get Laura out of her thoughts and decided that this would be best way to clear her mind. “I was kind of tired out from our last lesson, maybe this time you can show me how you hit those high notes.” Carmilla ran her fingers through the girl’s blonde hair and pulled her in for a kiss. She took no time slipping her hand under Elsie’s bra, causing the girl to whimper slightly. She knew she only had 15 minutes until she was needed on stage so she made it quick, or as quick as Elsie would let it be.

And it was stupid and dumb but even after she reduced Elsie to a quaking mess and began to walk her back to rehearsal, she couldn’t stop thinking about Laura.

* * *

“Look who decided to show up,” Danny whispered to Laura.

“And look at who she dragged in with her.” Carmilla walked on to the stage by the stairs on the side. She crossed to the center and sat on the edge with her legs dangling off. Hardly a step behind her, Elsie walked into the pit and sat at the piano and opened up the score.

“Ew, no, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Laura smiled and shook her head. Danny cringed at the thought.

“Carmilla?” Perry called from stage left, causing Carmilla to turn her head. A line of newly formed hickeys traced down the side of her throat, the head turn exposing them to the crowd.

“Oh god, I’ve known Elsie for _years._ I thought she had some standards,” Danny nearly cried out, Laura quickly shushing her before others heard.

“Oh come on, she’s kind of hot,” Laura reasoned with a shrug. Danny grimaced at the thought. Laura giggled a little and Danny almost forgot to hold her grimace. Laura’s laugh had that effect on her.

“Yeah, if you like black clothes, no personality and an okay jawline,” Danny retorted. Laura shook her head again and they both laughed that time.

“Yeah, but-“

“Lawrence!” Laf’s voice broke their conversation, looking at Danny expectantly.

“Yeah?”

“Tech meeting. Backstage.” Danny looked at them with confusion. “Read your emails, damn, I told you about this,” Laf shouted, disgruntled but not angry.

“Okay, yeah, my bad.” Danny stood up and turned around to face Laura. “We’re still on for dinner, yeah?”

“Of course! Bye!” Laura responded, cheerfully as ever.

Danny walked over to the stage now, hopping up without the use of the stairs. She didn’t like the smirk Carmilla gave her after she was reprimanded by Laf. Like she had any moral grounds at all, especially any over Danny. It was bullshit to think that Little Miss Late-All-the-Time had any right to look at Danny when a meeting, planned over a week ago, slipped her mind. But that was so Carmilla. And it was so driving Danny up a f-

“Are you listening?” Laf said, expectantly at Danny.

“Yeah, duh,” she muttered.

“Then what did I just say?”

“Uh, well, that tech week...”

“Yeah, definitely listening, sorry for interrupting your thoughts,” Laf deadpanned. “As I was saying, the set build this Saturday will start...”

Danny knew this wasn’t possible but she swore she could hear Carmilla smirk at her getting reprimanded. Again. Danny looked over her shoulder and saw Laura talking to the MDs about a song and she saw the small girl grin to herself and do a little happy dance after they talked over something (a line probably). Maybe doing the play wasn’t so bad, if she got to do it with Laura. 

* * *

“Which song did you two want to run first, ‘When You’re Home’ or ‘When the Sun Goes Down?’” J.P. asked the girls before him. Laura was standing up next to the stage, with Carmilla sitting on the edge still. Carmilla’s legs were brushing against her side as she swung them back and forth.

“Can you not?” Laura said, holding Carmilla’s shins to the front part of the stage.

“You’re no fun,” Carmilla grumbled. “And obviously ticklish.” Her toe dug into Laura’s side at that and Laura whacked her on the arm.

“Cut it out!” Laura squealed, grabbing Carmilla’s foot and turning to face her. Carmilla smirked in response. Laura glared back. It really wasn’t funny and Laura didn’t know where the sudden change in Carmilla’s demeanor came from. (Also, she hated being tickled).

Someone cleared their throat and the two of them look forward at the musical directors. “ _Children,_ ” Elsie started.

“I’m older than you,” Carmilla muttered.

“You are acting like children,” J.P. defended. Carmilla rolled her eyes. Of course she did. Laura turned around and muttered a “sorry” to the people before her. “So, song choice?”

“I don’t give a-“

“Let’s go in order,” Laura piped up, effectively cutting Carmilla off. “’When You’re Home.’”

“Whatever you want, cutie.” Laura felt a pair of eyes glaring at her as she turned to take the stage. Carmilla grabbed Laura’s elbow and helped her up. She felt the eyes nearly bore through her shirt at that point. She’d have to talk to Carmilla (and maybe Elsie) about this soon. Carmilla was staring at Laura very intently, like she wanted to say something and couldn’t find the words. Laura looked into Carmilla’s eyes with concern, still very aware of Carmilla’s fingers on her left elbow. Laura shook the hands off of her and Carmilla shrugged. “Just getting into character, _Nina_. No need to get your panties in a bunch.”

“My panties are most definitely _not_ ‘in a bunch,’” Laura corrected, using air quotes for emphasis.

“Oh yeah? Then what’s with the anger, princess? Mad that I rescinded the comment? I bet you want me to like you,” Carmilla teased, dropping her voice to a lower octave. She reached forward to touch Laura’s cheek and was met with Laura smacking her hand away in defiance. Laura could almost hear Elsie moving her chair and getting up to go. It must be rough watching your “music buddy” shamelessly flirt with another girl in the middle of rehearsal. Carmilla didn’t seem to notice.

 “Yeah, that’s definitely not it considering I can barely tolerate you, alright? I’ve just about had it with you and your rude comments and your bad attitude and—“

“LAURA! Enough,” Perry shouted from the audience. “Both of you, stop it immediately. Just run the song for goodness gracious.” Carmilla looked down and away. She said nothing and sighed. Laura felt her body still shaking in rage.

J.P. looked over at Laf who just gave him a sympathetic smile and a shrug. “From the top?” Laura closed her eyes and took a breath to hear the sound of footsteps leaving the stage. _Of course she would run away,_ Laura thought to herself. She saw Laf run after the girl and when the auditorium door swung open, she swore she could almost hear the sound of muffled sobs. Almost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter and I was sick of it so it's posted. Also, it's been a work in progress throughout finals week but now that I'm done, I had more time to finish it up! Oh, and Hollstein /will/ happen...eventually. What's the fun if they don't hate each other first?

**Author's Note:**

> If this is even halfway decent, I'll continue with it. I'm planning it to work like the show, with all of the hatred at the beginning and blossoming into a beautiful Hollstein love story. There will definitely be side LaFerry, probably side Zeta Society and who knows? Maybe I'll actually finish this out (and write chapters that are more than like 1000 words).
> 
> Let me know what you think and if I should continue!


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